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I have missed blogging over the past year! I have so many recipes that I want to blog about, but I just have not had the chance.

I got a job in June, Finally! Then I lost it in August. Then I was going to start school, and that fell through. So, time to get back to blogging!

Yesterday I was shopping at Costco, and I found this package of Naan bread. It looked light and fluffy, and made me crave Indian food. So, After costco, I went to Winco and bought some curry powder in bulk. I quickly looked up a yogurt chicken curry recipe and kind of got a list in my head of ingredients I would need at the store. I got some yogurt and cilantro as well (coriander). I wish I would have got some lime, but forgot about that.

So today, I thawed out some chicken, and got a marinade started. I mixed the yogurt, curry powder, turmeric, cayenne powder, fresh ginger, paprika, garlic, cumin, and cilantro.

Mix all of the ingredients in a gallon zip lock bag, and separate half a cup for use later. Next add 1 inch cubed slices of chicken to the bag. Gently massage it all together for a few minutes, then let it marinade for several hours in the fridge. I did it for about six hours.

Once your marinading is done, the cooking goes by very quickly. Start a pot for rice. I used pearl rice, which only takes about 15 minutes or so to cook. First boil four cups of water, then turn it down to low and add 2 cups of rice and cover until all the water is gone.

While the rice was cooking, I pulled out my husband’s grill skewers, and started putting the chicken on. I heated my large cast iron pizza tray over a large burner, and started cooking three skewers at a time with a total of 5. I also made two skewers of green bell peppers to add some color.

Next I toasted the naan bread for 30-40 seconds or so just to warm it up. Turns out it is the perfect size to fit in my toaster!

Then when all of the chicken, rice, bread, and bell peppers were cooked through, I assembled the plates. The first plate for my husband had naan with the extra yogurt curry sauce then chicken and peppers on top, with rice on the side. I served this with a knife and fork. Then I saw him picking up the naan, and thought eating it like a flat bread gyro was an awesome idea! My plate had me put the rice on the bread as well, however this became problimatic to eat without a plate. it was delicious, and I loved the fluffy rice mixed into the sandwich! It just got very messy, as the naan is not very big, and everything came piling out.

I never thought I liked curry until my friend Niina introduced me to Panang pumpkin curry which I blogged about last December, but I do enjoy most Indian food I have tried, and I thought that I just wanted to try something new. This recipe is also reminiscent of my Identity Crisis Chicken I blogged about several years ago, except that particular chicken did not have curry and was baked instead of grilled. My husband RAVED about the recipe, and it is so simple. It is filling without feeling heavy for sure!

Enjoy the recpie, and let me know if you make it and how you like it!

Marinade

1.5 cups yogurt

3 tablespoons curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon paprika

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (more or less depending on how spicy you like it)

1-2 teaspoon cumin (not my favorite but works well with this)

2 cloves of garlic sliced up

1 gallon sized zip lock bag

1 small bunch of cilantro

Mix all ingredients in the gallon ziplock bag. I find marinating in a bag is easy as you can suck out most of the air, and it coats meat well. When you are done mixing all of the ingredients set aside half a cup of the yogurt mixture for use later. Then slice up two or three large chicken breasts into one inch chunks and put them in the bag with the mixture. Put this in a bowl sealed up with as little air as possible and let it sit for a few hours to marinade. I think I let mine sit for about 6 hours. Then I dug out all of the chicken and put in all on skewers, and made two skewers of bell peppers that all got cooked on a cast iron flat top.

Bread: I used pre-made bread found at Costco, however, you can always make your own naan as well. I thought I had a recipe for it in my blog but I cannot find it so if I do I will add the link.

I used pearl rice, as that is what I find most authentic to the white rice i got in Korea, and it is what I had on hand. I think basmati or jasmine would work great with this recipe as well.

When all ingredients were done cooking, I assembled the plate as described above.

My favorite food since middle school is Pho (pronounced Fuh). Pho is Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup. My sister had a baby when I was in middle school. She lived with her in-laws, who were from Laos. Every time we came over, the family made pho. It was sooooooooo good! I loved it each and every time, and I remember the first time I had it, I experienced cilantro. I had never tired it before, and now it is one of favorite herbs. For those who are from countries other than America, cilantro is what we call the plant form of coriander. We call coriander the seeds of cilantro. they have two different tastes, so we classify them differently.

I have always known pho from that standpoint, from my sister’s in-laws. She and they always told me that it was Vietnamese beef noodle soup. Well, when I moved to Korea, I was introduced to chicken pho. I didn’t know that pho could get any better than beef noodle soup, but it turns out that chicken noodle soup is even better!

This past week I discovered konjac noodles. In America they are mostly known as Miracle Noodles or Shirataki noodles. They are not approved on Phase 2 of the Omni HCG diet, but I have done some research online saying that it is approved as a freebie food for other HCG diets. So, I decided to try them. They are very filling. I cooked a few things with them this week, or added them to other meals just to make them more filling, but 2 days ago, I got the idea that they would make the perfect pho noodles! I did change it up a bit, as I used chicken instead of beef, and it turned out AMAZING!

First, I boiled 5 chicken bouillon cubes with a pot of water, and three chicken breasts. I boiled it and added garlic, while peeling and slicing 2 onions. Once the chicken was done, I shredded it, and then I flame roasted the onions

I roasted it on both sides just until charred. I used two onions and roasted both of them that way.

I got some of the char off, and added it to the broth.

Next I added some garlic (maybe a tablespoon or two), and powdered ginger to taste. I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon, as one of the recipes I referenced suggested throwing in a cinnamon stick. I figured since I have ginger in there, it couldn’t hurt.

I let the soup continue boiling while I prepared the noodles. The noodles are found in the refrigerator section and are packed in water.

To prepare the noodles, you cut the bag open, and rinse the noodles off in hot water.

Next I use kitchen sheers to cut them up, as the noodles are quite long.

The next step is to wash and slice up some green onions and wash up some bean sprouts and cilantro. I didn’t have any fresh, so I added a little dried cilantro to the soup to extract as much flavor as I could.

Next up, add a little more ginger or garlic powder to taste, and you may want some salt and pepper if you prefer.

Next serve up some noodles, and make sure there is a lot of broth in a bowl. Once you are all served up, put the sprouts and green onions over the top. This is where you add the fresh cilantro if you have it.

Pho tends to be a bit sweet and spicy, so if you are on weight watchers, you can add some hoisin sauce, and some sriracha sauce for very little points. If you are hcg, you can add a few small pinches of stevia, and some Franks Red Hot sauce (the approved hot sauce). I honestly used tobacco cause it is what I have now.

Each bowl is about 7 Weight Watchers points, and for HCG I have no idea how to measure it, but everything except maybe the noodles are approved.